Since its inception, Whole Foods has become a symbol of sustainable agriculture, the highest industry standards, and theplace to buy “the finest natural and organic foods available,” according to their web site. Due in part to its commitment to such causes, Whole Foods is also notoriously expensive. Yet the company’s continued success is a case-in-point of America’s willingness to pay more for what it perceives as a good cause. But what if there isn’t one near by? Will consumers still stay loyal to the cause it they have to drive further to support it? The current available data from a variety of institutions does not address to what extent does a consumer’s loyalty to a place like Whole Foods goes, until now.

Part of Do Well Do Good, LLC ‘s new study focuses on issues of consumer behavior and commitment to cause-marketing and corporate social responsibility. The report will be released on December 15 on this web page.

Congruent with the results of other extant surveys, ours confirmed that roughly 70% of consumers were willing to pay more for a product that supports a cause. While in our previous release we revealed some data on how much extra money consumers are willing to spend to support a cause they care about, this time we asked to what extent are they willing to travel to support a cause.

To return to the example Whole Foods, what if there isn’t one near by? Are people willing to travel to by agriculturally sustainable products (or to stay loyal to another cause or brand)? If so, how far? Here is a preliminary look at the results:

Overall, roughly 69% of consumers are willing to drive some extra amount of time to purchase a product that supports a cause he or she cares about. While most demographics fell within the margin of error, only moms were outside of it, with 73% of mom-respondents willing to drive for an extra amount of time. More specifically, on average:

American consumers would be willing to travel 10.89 minutes out of their way to drive to a specific store to purchase a cause product that supports a cause they care about

Men would be willing to travel 11.35 minutes

Women would be willing to travel 10.43 minutes and moms would travel 10.92 minutes

While more moms may be willing to drive an extra amount of time, men were willing to drive farther to buy a product that supports a cause, averaging of almost 11.5 minutes.

Interested in finding out more? Click on this link to be brought to the 2010 survey’s main page. If you’re reading this prior to its official release, you can obtain early access by signing up for our SPAM-free electronic newsletter in the field to the right of this article.